I originally wanted to do a monthly get together with some good friends, good weed, good food and a great movie. I was excited to play projectionist at home & turning people on to some amazing films. So what happened? It all started to sound like a hassle. All those people at my place. My dope all smoked up. It was so perfect in my mind, it was bound to get ruined. But the name was too good to let go of, so I thought, why not a blog?

Before the superhero genre was honed to a fine point by Batman Begins &The Dark Knightand then weaponized into unstoppable entertainment by Marvel Studios, it wasn't such a winner. M. Night Shyamalan saw that comic books had massive mythic appeal which could be made into great stories. So he invented his very own super villains & heroes in a very real world we could recognize.

I thought that Unbreakable was a one and done sort of experience. There was no open ending for a sequel. Sixteen years later came Split. This psychological horror movie seemed to be another stand alone until David Dunn appeared at the very end of it.

And now Glass is coming to unite all of these characters and make the the rest of us whole. With the years and years of meticulous, calculated crafting of the MCU, this feels organic and free of constraints. I'm ready to see what happens next.

My first foray into science fiction was Star Wars followed by Flash Gordon and then this Woody Allen classic. So this was my first introduction to dystopian stories, but this happened to be a comedy about revolting against a tyrant and feature cameos by near future autonomous cars and right now future GMO farm.

So in a weird way, Woody nailed the future and is current now with some choice words about the Me Too Movement. Blaze one and soak in the irony of these days of future past.

I've never had a relationship with Mandy, but I do have one with Panos Cosmatos. Being ushered into his scary, psychedelic creation Beyond the Black Rainbow made me feel alienated from myself. So I watched it again and, like getting bad news when you're tripping, was surprised how disturbed I was on a second viewing.

Do I really want to return to another experience like this? A tour of another neighborhood next to a hell portal led by Nick Cage. So there's that. So smoke an extra bowl and chow that free edible from the dispensary and get your heavy dread on.

It is a challenging 4th of July to be happy with our country so divided. Racism is rampant. Neighbors scowl at neighbors. Political divisiveness strains our relationships to other Americans in many ways. And the very political fabric of what our forefathers put together is being tested.

It is hard to remain optimistic, but on the other side of whatever is happening here in the United States lies a stronger union, a better world and some lessons learned about power, technology and what the American Dream now looks like.

We will get through this. We will persevere. We are Americans. We are America.